{Due to technical issues we do not have the video of this service, but below are the sermon notes}
I love the Holy Spirit, His work, His power, His word, His refreshing…
• I love the emotion of it all… I love that God not only engages the mind but the heart and emotions…
• He ministers to our total being… this total being ministry by it’s very nature should drive us to balance… It was put best this way…
• It doesn’t matter how high you jump on Sunday, it matters how you walk on Monday…
So before we get into the more extroverted aspects of the Spirit we need to talk about the fruit…
Galatians 5:16-26
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
V16-17
There is no third option here… no middle ground…
V17 This is the basic idea of the last line of verse 17; “to keep you from doing the things you(r spirit) want(s) to do.”
• If we’re in Christ there is a desire to be used in a greater way by God…
• Sin and the flesh rob us of so much in our lives… when we’re not walking in the Spirit it’s robbing us of walking in the fullness of God…
Galatians 5:18-26
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
V18-21
These characteristics must not mark us as Spirit filled believers…
• We can learn a lot about God from the don’ts – the opposites are true… the contrast of the fruit…
• God doesn’t only want to take the ‘works of the flesh’ from us, but fill us and produce in us a far better fruit… one that bring life not death…
Galatians 5:22-26
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
V22-23 The fruit of the Spirit isn’t the result collegiate study… It’s not just developed when we have a lot of time on our hands…
The fruit of the Spirit is practical and lived out in real life…
• We cannot educate ourselves into bearing fruit (I’m not telling you to turn off your minds)…
• But the Fruit only comes when tested… it’s only proven a reality in our lives when it’s tested… when we’re in the storms of life does our theology become practical… The fruit of the Spirit is most clearly seen In difficulty…
• Many of us wonder why we seem to be walking around the same mountain spiritually… “Leaders cannot rise above the limitations of their character”…
Love – when things get real is love what comes out of our lives…
• Have you ever been tested? All the fruit mentioned in the fruit of the Spirit flow from this one thing, love… Truly all the other fruits are different manifestations of this first fruit, love… God’s called us to Love…
• This is not to say that Christians are the only ones that can express love or feel love… it’s easy to love if love is returned…
• The love found in the fruit of the Spirit, that the Lord is trying to develop in our lives, is an enduring love generated out of our commitment to Christ… We are called to love even when it’s not reciprocated…
If we have the gifts of the Spirit but are missing the fruit we’re a noisy gong…
1 Corinthians 13
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love
These scriptures are not only meant for weddings…
• Chapters 12/14 are two of the most exhaustive teachings in the bible about the gifts of the Spirit and right in the middle of it all is the love chapter (as it’s come to be known)…
• God through Paul was making a point, ‘all that others stuff is well and good and desired and necessary, but without love what’s the point… and it losses the power of the central calling of humanity, love God and love humanity, this love is what gives glory to God’…
• Jesus would call us to not spend our time looking for love. rather to spend our time seeking how to give love… finding ways to express through words and actions and attitudes the very love of Christ we have experienced…
Why do we start with love here, why does it matter so much…
• All our spiritual deficits and problems, I believe, find their root in a love problem…
• When we can align our hearts with God and know and experience His love, from that our behavior and manifestations of deeper things will grow and improve…
Joy – rejoicing in Gods work in us and others… do we find joy in His presence in worship…
• and when we suffer on this earth can we rejoice in midst of our trials because of our heavenly reward…
Matthew 5:12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
• God’s desire for us isn’t drudgery but joy… life was hard for Jesus, but He had joy… if He’s calling us to it, He lived it…
John 4:36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.
• That is ministry… yes there is hardships, but there is joy in the reaping, even here on earth…
We can nurture joy within our life as we love, sing and give thanks, and engage in ministry…
Peace – Peace is not simply the absence of conflict… “wholeness, balance, well-being” can we be content in life, and satisfied simply to be a child of God…
When we are a person of peace we are:
• resolving hostility, and not allowing the sun to set on our anger…
• Depending upon God to resolve our stress…
• free of the unhealthy comparisons we have with others that only serve to dissatisfy us… envy / Jealousy… The best test of this is can we be happy when someone else is blessed, and we are not blessed in that same way…
We can be whole and at peace in God in the middle of life’s stresses…
Patience – “longsuffering” “Long anger- not blowing up quickly” it truly is only developed in times where we are bearing a weight for a long time… we cannot microwave this…
• (My Girls loves b-days) a birthday takes a whole year to happen…
• Hard situations dealt with by depending on Christ is the only way to test, develop and know you have patience…
• Patience doesn’t just come because we’ve had a hard life, it’s our response to those situations… people will walk in and out of hard situations and be exactly the same if they don’t deal with it rightly…
• Best wine is made in the toughest soil…
He’s been so patient with us, how can we not afford the same grace for others and our life situations.
Kindness – “kin” to bring a person in and treat as a family member… “Mercy” can we show kindness to those that break the rules…
• we’ve been rule breakers no matter how “good” we’ve been… (Contrast Jonah)…
• Shaming those that have broken the rules is unnecessary… Jesus is and was perfect, He could have condemned the whole world, but He choose kindness (“For God so Love the world)…
Goodness – “Virtue” “cleanness” publicly and privately are we allowing the purity of Christ to work out our lacking cleanness…
• when given the opportunity to fail do we choose to live and think in a way that honors God…
Faithfulness – Is the character we see and experience in God, and what He desires to be seen in us…
• God is faithful and true to His words… are we faithful and true to our word… is our word truly our bond, do we need a contract to follow through on what we should do, do we allow our feeling to dictate whether or not we keep our word…
Gentleness – basically means “balanced and disciplined” this keeps us from responding in anger or off handedly but gently…
• Have you ever been in a situation where someone was looking for a fight…
• This doesn’t mean a soft, vanilla, pushover… A wild horse that has been tamed still has energy and power, only that energy in power are channeled for a purpose. That is a perfect picture of gentleness… Jesus was gentle and strong…
Galatians 6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
• In gentleness is even the power to restore a fallen brother…
Self-control – (the virtue of one who masters his desires and passions, esp. his sensual appetites)…
• This is the pinnacle of what it means to have the fruit of the Spirit… Strong and in control of our actions…
• We are in control of our beings, because He’s in control of our hearts… we will not be weak and ruled by those things that would destroy us like “the works of the flesh”…
Galatians 5:19-26
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
This fruit isn’t easy but God is more concerned with the fruit in our lives than how comfortable we may feel in any particular moment…
• the fruit will last and is eternal, the moment is passing and (un-enduring) finite…
Galatians 5:24-26
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
V24-26 – this lifestyle requires a death to ourselves…
• walking in step with the Spirit…
• their is no room for pride… don’t antagonize… don’t covet what the Lord has blessed another with…
None of us have all the gifts of the Spirit, but all believers are to have the fruit of the Spirit… singular, we cannot pick and choose… “Fruit” not “Fruits”
• The fruit of the Spirit is simply a more exhaustive list of the greatest commandment… love…
Romans 12:9-21
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
That is a picture of what a life overflowing with the fruit of the Spirit looks like, and it’s what God has called us to… And the beauty of all this fruit is this…
• Fruit is not meant to be enjoyed by the tree, but by those that come in contact with it… it’s no good if it’s not picked…
• the fruit of the Spirit in your life will be a blessing to all those that touch your life… It’s the character of Christ being expressed within your life…
Make this your prayer: God work your fruit and character out in me… Begin in me “love, {then} joy, {then} peace, {then} patience, {then} kindness, {then} goodness, {then} faithfulness, {then} gentleness, {then} self-control”